Human Restoration Project 84: In Defense of Public Education w/ Dr. Jennifer Berkshire & Dr. Jack Schneider
Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org.
Today we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Berkshire and Dr. Jack Schneider. Dr. Berkshire is a journalist and educator who focuses on podcasting and labor organizing at Boston College and Umass Amherst respectively, and Dr. Schneider is an education historian focused on reform and school accountability. Jennifer and Jack co-host the wonderful Have You Heard Podcast, which is focused on hot button issues in educational policy and current events, and both Chris and I highly recommend checking it out if you aren’t listening already.
Our discussion today is going to cover a lot of ground but center on education reform, innovation, labor rights, unions, and change. There’s an odd dichotomy between progressive education and the assault on public education: a cognitive dissonance between the necessity for systemic reform while ensuring a free and accessible public education for the future and recognizing the need for organized labor as a path to a strong working class, that teacher unions are among the largest and most powerful in the country. Yet, there is a narrative - real or not - that unions are resistant to the change that many progressive educators want, and more recently, the notion that they have become the major roadblock to school reopenings in 2020.
GUESTS
Dr. Jennifer Berkshire, journalist and educator focused on podcasting and labor organizing at Boston College & UMass Amherst
Dr. Jack Schneider, education historian centered on reform and school accountability
RESOURCES
- A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Dr. Berkshire & Dr. Schneider
- Review: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Nick Covington
- Have You Heard Blog/Podcast